TWO Arab rice dishes were the highlight of my meal at Spiced Pumpkin Café in Shah Alam – Maqlubah rice and the deliciously smoky Mandy rice.

Maqlubah is basmati rice seasoned with 14 herbs and spices, layered with vegetables and meat, and cooked on a stove for half an hour.

Presented flipped upside down, it is topped with roasted almonds, peanuts, pine nuts and sultanas, and is a feast for the eyes and palate.

On the plate was a salad and two sauces: a red, hot, tangy sauce called daqqus, and a lemon, mint and celery sauce.

We had the mini Maqlubah lamb pot, an aromatic dish with chunks of spiced and juicy tender meat, marinated and roasted first before being cooked with the rice, and lovely mushy eggplant, potato and carrot.

It was delicious, infused with spices like cardamom, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, star anise, nutmeg and cloves, among others.

This “mini” Maqlubah, at RM95, is enough for four people and is a satisfying, complete meal in itself. It comes with a tall jug of iced tea. It needs to be pre-ordered.

We also enjoyed the smoky Mandy rice with chicken. The rice was smoked with charcoal with a few drops of oil added to it.

The smokiness is so distinct that you may even burp it, said Mas Zuharin Zubir, owner of Spiced Pumpkin Café.

Her ex-partner’s late husband was Palestinian, hence the Middle-Eastern slant on the food.

The smoked rice cooked with saffron and other spices was lovely on its own, even without the fried chicken.

It was topped with mixed nuts and accompanied by a salad and two sauces. Mandy rice at other restaurants just doesn’t taste like this.

Another must-order here is the lontong kering Johor with peanut sauce, coconut serunding, sambal and beef rendang.

The lontong was smothered in sauce, coconut serunding and rendang and made for scrumptious bites.

Spiced Pumpkin Café also lives up to its name with its creamy pumpkin pasta with chicken.

The sauce had a hint of sweetness and a light heat from chilli flakes. The pasta was al dente.

The spaghetti with butter salmon in salted egg sauce was quite good, too, spiced with chilli and curry leaves. It was a generous portion of fried salmon chunks of some 120g.

Pita nachos – fried pieces of pita – make crispy yummy bites at this café.

We had the Tres Quesos, which was drizzled with three cheeses and topped with beef bacon bits and jalapenos. The nacho cheese has hot sauce and chilli flakes, and is sold at Spiced Pumpkin Café.

Kunafa with tres leches (three types of milk), mozzarella, orange blossom syrup, crushed pistachios and scattered rose petals made for a sublime dessert. Fine crispy filo threads covered the cheese, delicately scented with orange blossom syrup and rose petals.

We tried other desserts such as kuih lopes with tres leches and ice cream, sago pudding with tres leches, and ice cream and tres leches cake. I liked the kuih lopes and the sago pudding.

Spiced Pumpkin Café is located at Lot 291, Kompleks KPPMS, 2 Jalan RU 3/9a, 40000 Shah Alam and can be contacted at 019-272 8317. The food is reasonably priced. View the menu here. – June 17, 2023.

* Eu Hooi-Khaw has been writing about food for the longest time, covering all aspects, from restaurant reviews to cooking and recipes, as well as the healthy side of it. She has written for major newspapers and magazines, published the cookbook Fresh Ingredients, and also writes for her website hooikhawandsu.com.